Running on the Bible

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Mark Pryor of Arkansas is among the most — if not the single most — vulnerable U.S. Senate Democrat seeking reelection next year. He’s the son of former Congressman/Gov./Sen. David Pryor. He’s roughly the least liberal Dem in the Senate.

But he’s the last Democrat in the Washington delegation of increasingly red Arkansas. His former Democratic Senate-mate, Blanche Lincoln, was crushed in 2010 by a breathtaking 58-37 percent margin after she voted for the Obamacare law. And Pryor — well, this is his first time to face the Arkansas electorate since he voted for it, too. Also since Mitt Romney squeaked past President Obama last year by 61-37 percent in Arkansas.

And one more thing. Pryor’s near-certain Republican challenger next year will be an impressive young congressman named Tom Cotton, who has a degree in government from Harvard, a law degree from Harvard Law School and saw active duty in Iraq. Oh, Afghanistan, too.

In such a fix, what would you do?

Sen. Pryor has chosen to kick off his campaign with a TV ad that doesn’t mention the Affordable Care Act, nor any other policy matter, doesn’t mention what party he has belonged to since birth (although he does boldly suggest that “neither political party is always right”), doesn’t mention anything he has said or done in office, nor anything he believes in, at least in earthly matters.

The ad opens with Pryor holding a Bible and saying: “I’m not ashamed to say that I believe in God and I believe in His Word.”

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Veteran journalist Eric Black writes Eric Black Ink for MinnPost. His latest award is from the Society of Professional Journalists, which in May 2017 announced he'd won the national Sigma Delta Chi Award for online column writing.

How about running on a campaign that advertises support for Obamacare? It’s nice that Pryor is a Christian and reads his Bible but I expect Tom Cotton will probably have the same spiel. But Pryor is a moron if he thinks he somehow avoid talking about Obamacare and his role in enacting it into law. And maybe explaining to his constituents, since he apparently feels that way, how he “saved” them from the worst fate of a “socialistic” single payer or universal insurance system, or expanded Medicare, by voting for Obamacare. Or maybe he could just read the law and become expert enough to shoot down the barrage of falsehoods that will soon be forthcoming from his right wing challenger.

…or something Pagan? (Not being one, I’ve no idea what the title might be.)

Surely there are people in Arkansas who can pronounce “theocracy.” The problem, of course, is that quite a few of those people may think theocracy is a good idea, despite a mountain of historical evidence to the contrary.

There will be other Democratic campaign ads similar to this one. They will feature no mention of the Democratic Party or Obamacare or Obama. They will be about the candidate’s family, patriotism and smiling faces from happy multicultural voters. Democrats are desperate to separate themselves from anything that will remind voters of the Obamacare mess.

I seemed to remember this type of chest thumping before…specifically, back in November prior to THAT election, regarding several other issues besides the Presidential race. I wouldn’t think I would have to remind you of how those worked out for you. You have about one month of bad polling for Obama…you have months and months of bad polling towards Republicans.